UM System President launches Show Me Value tour

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Tour promotes the value of higher education to Missouri students, community members

University of Missouri System President Tim Wolfe will launch his Show Me Value tour today in Moberly, Mo., as a way to begin to counter growing sentiment that a college education is not as valuable as it once was.

Focused on communicating the value of higher education to Missouri’s middle and high school students—as well as community members—Wolfe will spend the day in Moberly talking with students about the innumerable benefits of going to college before meeting with education, business, civic and political leaders about barriers to college attainment, followed by a tour of a local business to discuss workforce development needs.

“I continue to firmly believe that a college education is a person’s greatest opportunity to a successful life,” Wolfe said. “By any measure—income, prosperity, health—a college education has a profound impact on an individual, which in turn can have a tremendous boost to communities, culture and our state as a whole. There is simply no greater investment you can make in yourself than higher education.”

Wolfe—a graduate of the University of Missouri-Columbia—said he became alarmed that this message was getting lost soon after he became university president a little more than a year ago. There has been a growing body of literature that points to increases in student debt and declining job placement rates, which he fears could cause some students to reconsider a college education.